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ERE特刊精选|基于自然的城市生物多样性和人类福祉解决方案

11 Aug 2025 gabriels

特刊详情

客座编辑

Carly D Ziter，加拿大康考迪亚大学
Rachel Buxton，加拿大卡尔顿大学

主题范围

With the majority of the world’s people now living in urban areas, and humanity facing joint biodiversity and climate crises, urban ecology has gained rapid attention as a necessary part of the solution to these issues. Central to this challenge is the protection and management of urban green spaces, which play an important role the conservation of species in urban environments and provision of ecosystem services (the benefits of nature for people, such as temperature regulation, improvement of air and water quality, and promotion of mental and physical wellbeing). The need for urban green spaces to play an active role in both ameliorating biodiversity loss, combatting climate change, and contributing to human wellbeing is reflected in the recent proliferation of local, national, and global policies and targets around urban nature-based solutions – actions that protect, manage, or restore ecosystems to address societal challenges.

Despite the increasing interest, there is still a limited understanding of how to successfully implement nature-based solutions in cities. This is due in part to limited understanding of the relationships between urban green spaces, biodiversity, and ecosystem services at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. Moreover, evidence of outcomes remains lacking, as there is limited evaluation of nature-based solutions post-implementation. Further, in an urban context where the distribution of and access to urban nature is often shaped by historical and ongoing systemic inequalities, nature-based solutions must be evaluated through an environmental and social justice lens if they are to truly address societal challenges as intended. Planning and implementing nature-based solutions in urban areas must consider the ability of nature-based solutions to deliver outcomes that benefit a diversity of people and communities, or they risk perpetuating the inequities currently present in many cities.

The focus collection evaluates improved health outcomes from the application off nature-based Solutions (NbS) in an urban context. NbS are integrative solutions to tackle problems at the biodiversity–climate–society nexus. Despite increasing interest in NbS and investment in urban NbS there is still a limited understanding of how to successfully implement NbS in cities to balance co-benefits, and how to assess the outcomes of these interventions for communities. This is due in part to limited understanding of the relationships between urban green spaces, biodiversity, and ecosystem services at appropriate spatial and temporal scales. Moreover, evidence of outcomes remains lacking, as there is limited evaluation of nature-based solutions post-implementation. Further, in an urban context where the distribution of and access to urban nature is often shaped by historical and ongoing systemic inequalities, nature-based solutions must be evaluated through an environmental and social justice lens if they are to truly address societal challenges as intended.

Contributions to this focus collection are representative of the breadth of disciplines across the biodiversity-climate-health nexus, from ecology to public health. Importantly, these papers view urban NbS as social-ecological systems, with reciprocal relationships between healthy people and nature. In particular, this focus issue emphasizes a key aspect that is fundamental to the holistic success of NbS programs: prioritization of equity, social justice, anti-racism, and decolonization. Given the increasing interest and investment in urban NbS, ensuring successful outcomes of these interventions across the biodiversity–climate–society nexus is critical. This collection of papers interrogated the process and initial outcomes of several urban NbS projects across scales and geographies.

特刊文章

Editorial

Anti-racist, decolonial, and transdisciplinary approaches for nature-based solutions that benefit biodiversity and human well-being

Carly D Ziter and Rachel T Buxton 2025 Environ. Res.: Ecology 4 020201

Perspective

Connecting people with place-specific nature in cities reduces unintentional harm

Margaret C Stanley and Josie A Galbraith 2024 Environ. Res.: Ecology 3 023001

Letter

Community-engaged flood mitigation and ecological restoration on a university campus

Brendon Samuels et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Ecology 3 031001

Paper

Nature based solutions in cities of the global South—The ‘where, who and how’ of implementation

Arvind Lakshmisha et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Ecology 3 025005

Social and environmental outcomes of urban street tree bed stewardship

Kelly Baldwin Heid et al 2024 Environ. Res.: Ecology 3 035005

Race in nature stewardship: an autoethnography of two racialised volunteers in urban ecology

Jacqueline L Scott and Ambika Tenneti 2024 Environ. Res.: Ecology 3 035006

期刊介绍

Environmental Research: Ecology

Environmental Research: Ecology（ERE）是一本多学科、金色开放获取的期刊，致力于以关于全球变化、弹性、减轻和适应影响的兼具科学进展和评估的方式，解决在环境科学、大尺度生态学、生物多样性和保护的交界领域的重要全球挑战。本刊为促进环境科学家、生态学家、资源管理者和政策制定者的对话提供了论坛。本刊鼓励所有的研究方法，包括定量、定性、实验、理论和应用方法。